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Salient. Newspaper of the Victoria University Students' Association. Vol 42 No. 6. April 2 1979

[Introduction]

An article in the Asia Week magazine written by a Malaysian writer Samad Said which claimed that "we writers are still free to say what we like" was challenged by another Malaysian, Amir Ali of Penang.

In a letter to the Asia Week, Amir Ali stated the following points. "Of course a writer like Samad Said is free to say what he likes since, by his own admission, he has learned "to keep away from sensitive issues." But what of those writers who are not prepared to sacrifice their integrity by doing so? In any case, what are "sensitive issues" and who really determines that they are so?

According to Samad, Kassim Ahmad is being held in detention "not for his writings but for his (socialist) Party activities." Assuming this to be true, perhaps he would care to explain why Kassim's novel Zaman Pancaroba, written while in detention, was banned even before publication.

The thing that has impressed me most about our Malaysian writers (with a few exceptions like Usman Awang) is their servility. Not a single writer protested when Kassim was detained, yet many expressed outrage at the curtailment of Solzhenitsyn's liberties by the Russion authorities. How can anyone take the commitment of such writers to literary freedom seriously, (ref. Asia Week23.2.79.)